Asterion He ought to be more glad, to feel the impact of his hooves on their target, but already the joy of the fight is leaving him. Maybe it is well, that it is so - for what bloodshed should ever be a game? - yet his grin is fled as he faces her, watching the way she favors her leg. Asterion stands taut, waiting for her to make a move, the fresh wind tugging his mane and tail and carrying the scent of rain. There are no shadows, now, no sun to gleam upon her armor; the clouds have swallowed up the sky. The bay stamps his injured hind leg, to keep blood flowing around the bruised muscle, the stinging cut. Katniss’s gaze is holding his, but still she makes no move; he shifts, uneasy, as thunder rumbles above them. It is then that a flash of storm-gray catches his eye. Asterion averts his attention to the eagle, though he keeps an ear and his peripheral vision on Katniss; in the background, over the sound of the wind, Cirrus calls out the mournful warning of a gull. The king senses rather than sees her sweep wide her wings and catch the air; still tracking the eagle with his gaze he sends her a sharp reprimand. No, he thinks, as she arcs pale through the air and the first of the raindrops wet the dust and raise the scent of petrichor. He’s an eagle, don’t be a fool- And then there is no more time; the harpy eagle is stooping, and Cirrus is wailing, and Asterion is rising on his hindquarters, ears laid back, to meet the creature with his hooves. The dirt goes unnoticed, snatched away by the wind - but his injured haunch gives, only a little, just enough to throw off his concentration as the eagle makes it’s strike. Still he lashes with his hooves as he falters in an attempt to defend himself, still he snaps with his teeth, but one of the raptor’s feet snags his left ear in mighty talons and tears. It could have been worse. It could have been his eye, torn from its socket like a dead and scavenged deer - but oh, the blood! The almost blinding pain! He is too shocked to cry out as he comes back to earth, and Cirrus’s frantic calling is only background noise as he shakes his head like a dog, flinging blood and rain. His ear still turns, but it feels all wrong (what of it he can feel, beneath the singing pain). If he could see it beneath the blood that streams and mats his forelock and streaks his star and his cheek he would see it tattered like an old flag. He is not eager now, as the rain begins to fall in earnest and turns the ground to mud. His breathing is ragged as he stares at the big mare, his heartbeat is thundering (a war-drum come too late) and his ear burns and burns and burns. But more than pain there is an anger rising in him - at himself for his foolishness, at Katniss for putting their companions (and a king’s eyes) at risk in what ought have been a friendly spar - and with it, like a breaking wave, comes his magic. It feeds on his anger, it feeds on his pain, it feeds on the storm now overhead. Between the two of them raindrops condense into a shape that at first is nothing more than living water, but then becomes an elk, wide-antlered and storm-eyed, an elk that charges Katniss with the fury of a rushing river. Asterion only watches as the elk (his own mad magic) rushes toward her, intent on colliding fully with her front with all the power of a flash flood, on forcing water down her throat and her nostrils and into her eyes. Like a wave it will break if it hits, but only at the last does the bay king pull himself back from the yawning edge of his magic and will it not to drown her. |
Summary: Drama! As the eagle flies toward him Asterion tells Cirrus not to intervene, worried for her safety. The wind snatches away the dirt in its talons, but when Asterion rears to meet its attack he falters due to his injured leg and the eagle shreds his left ear.
In anger and pain and with the help of the storm now upon them, Asterion summons his magic and sends an elk formed of water to charge down Katniss, essentially seeking to waterboard her (lol) or shove her over through force.
Attack Used: 1 (2 total)
Attack(s) Left: 0
Block Used: 0
Block(s) Left: 1
Item(s) Used: Magic (for attack)
Response Deadline: 2/25
Tags: @
